Hogwarts Writing Club Competition
by frances janvier
Summary: A collection of 10 one-shots for game 5 of the competition, increasing in wordcount by 100 words each time.
1. Al's Eyes

**Round 1:** Eyes

 **WC:** 108

* * *

Those eyes were going to be the death of Scorpius Malfoy.

Of the three Potter children, only Albus inherited bright green eyes. They were always shining, and Scorpius could never stop himself from always staring at them.

Everybody said that Albus had his father's eyes who had _his_ mother's eyes, but really, Scorpius just admired them as being _Al_ 's eyes.

"Scorpius? Scorpius? Earth to Scorpius?"

Albus poked him in the side, which was what focused him back in on the world outside Al's eyes.

"Sorry, Al," he said, placing another piece of food in his mouth. He rather preferred the world of Al's eyes to the real world.


	2. Playground of Dreams

**I missed the last round, so this is round 3.**

 **Round 3:** Playground

 **Wordcount:** 272

* * *

For Lily Evans, the playground was the only place where she could relive her dreams. She couldn't risk doing magic anywhere except for the playground.

Sometimes, she went with her sister, Petunia. But most of the time, she went alone.

The playground was often deserted except for Lily. It was only her, the rusty swings, the dulled red slide, and the bushes.

She could fly. She could make a flower bloom in a second. She could do anything at the playground of dreams.

* * *

For Severus Snape, the playground was a place where he could see dreams being made true.

Of course, they weren't his own dreams. They were Lily's, and he indulged himself on watching her from the bushes whenever he could.

Her sister was just a useless muggle, and he was always disappointed when she was brought along and made rude comments about magic. She always made the dreams end, too.

Severus knew for sure that Lily would get a letter inviting her to Hogwarts. She was such a talented little witch that Severus himself wouldn't be able to go to Hogwarts if Lily didn't get a letter.

Her sister, on the other hand, had not a drop of magical blood. She wouldn't be going to Hogwarts with him and Lily. Severus was fine with that, though.

He longed to come out the bushes some day and befriend Lily and leave the sister behind, but he knew that they would tease him about his shabby, oversized, and dirty clothes, and his eternally greasy hair.

So Severus just stayed in the bushes and continued watching Lily Evans and the playground of dreams.


	3. la viva idyllia

**Round 4:** Maniacal

* * *

Xenophilius Lovegood was known for his maniacal ideas. He stayed sane and normal enough that people ignored him for the most part because he knew that getting _too_ wacky would result in bad attention to him and his daughter, Luna.

The Quibbler was one of the aforementioned ideas. In Xenophilius' eyes, the Daily Prophet was so _boring_ and _normal_. It went on and on about subjects that he couldn't believe anybody found interest in.

Thus, with the help of his wife, he started an alternative option to the Prophet. In it, he wrote about _much_ more appealing topics, like Crumple-Horned Snorkacks. Everybody wanted to read about Crumple-Horned Snorkacks.

The Quibbler didn't bring in too much income at first, but it was enough for him and Pandora and Luna to live a happy life. Besides, even if the Quibbler didn't satisfy anybody else, he and his family enjoyed it plenty.

But sometimes, his ideas in the Quibbler were too dangerous.

* * *

His maniacal ideas were what got Pandora, his lovely wife, killed.

It had been Xenophilius himself who had proposed the specific experiment, and the two of them had been working on the project together. Luna was young at the time.

He knew it would be mildly dangerous, but they persisted onwards. Once they had started, they couldn't bring themselves to stop.

One false calculation and one large explosion later, Pandora was dead because of him and his maniacal ideas.

* * *

His maniacal ideas were what got Luna kidnapped.

He had been writing a lot more in the Quibbler about Harry Potter, and they were positively positive about him, not taking the negative stance against him like the Prophet.

Xenophilius had been safe originally with the level of wackiness that the Quibbler was at, but as he continued on writing more articles about Harry and the Order, he was oblivious to the quickly rising danger levels. Before he knew it, there had been another simple false calculation and Luna hadn't come home to him at Christmas.

His precious daughter hadn't even done anything awful herself. The Snatchers had only taken her because of him and his maniacal ideas.

* * *

Sometimes, Xenophilius wished that he could have his maniacal ideas and everything, but only without all the pain and harm they caused to his loved ones and himself.

But that would be the ideal life, and a Lovegood never gets the ideal life.


	4. Kidnapped

**Prompt:** Bait

 **WC:** 623

* * *

Harry had warned Albus and Scorpius about the possibility of it happening. He had warned him about it, and yet the two of them still were as gullible as ever and fell for the obvious bait.

"So, what do we do now?" Albus whispered to his friend, his voice barely even louder than their breathing. Their arms were pinned to their bodies with tight rope, and their legs were shackled both together and to the wall directly behind them. The room was pitch-black, and neither of them could see three inches in front of their face. It didn't help that they had taken Albus's glasses, too. In the room next to them, a few people chatted in low, ominous voices.

Less than an hour ago, they were about to board the Hogwarts Express and return home after the school year. Although they didn't know it at the time, somebody had Polyjuiced themselves into James, Albus's brother, as bait, and had led them to a deserted corner of the station. Before they could begin to question his behavior, he blacked them out and brought them to the room.

Sure, Albus had been hoping for more time with Scorpius before they parted ways, but he hadn't expected it would happen like this.

Scorpius made a sound somewhat like a laugh, but he ended it quickly in case their captors heard them. "We were kidnapped, and you ask me what we're going to do next?"

"Well, we don't exactly have a starting point, yet. Plus, you're the smarter one in our friendship," Albus said. It was true; Scorpius consistently made almost all of the better decisions.

Scorpius seemed to consider this for a few seconds. "Look, neither of us have been kidnapped before this, so I'm just as inexperienced and clueless in this situation as you are, Albus."

"You're ever inexperienced and clueless, Scorpius. That's me you're describing." Before Scorpius could cut in again, Albus continued. "Look, can you just give us some ideas to start off of? Please?"

Albus swore he could practically see the cute pout on Scorpius's face. "Well, we need to find a way to escape this room. In order to do that, we'll have to first find a way out of the ropes and shackles. It would be nice to learn who kidnapped us but that's not as important as getting out. Oh! And we also need to grab our wands on the way out."

Albus nodded in response. "Okay," he replied. Experimentally, Albus contorted his body and wiggled around a little bit. Almost too easily, the ropes slid down his body and fell to his ankles.

"Hey, Scorpius! The ropes are really easy to get out of!" he exclaimed to his friend, before clapping a hand over his mouth. The murmuring from the other room paused briefly, but then continued on as if nothing had happened. Hopefully, it was a coincidence.

There was a minute of silence in their own room, in which Albus assumed Scorpius was wriggling his way out of the ropes.

"Wow. How about the shackles?" Scorpius asked. "I tried briefly to get them off myself, and it didn't work, but I think if somebody else does it it'll come off more easily."

Albus fumbled around in the dark for a few second before his hands made contact with the cool metal linking Scorpius's legs together. He removed them quickly, and Scorpius did the same with Albus's.

The two of them tip-toed away from the wall, hoping to find a door, when all of a sudden, Albus felt his body freeze.

"Where do you two kiddos think you're going? Now, now, it would be rude to run away from your new home, wouldn't it?"


	5. Enough for Now

**Prompt:** Annoyed

 **WC:** 673

* * *

"Scorpius. Hyperion. Malfoy. Bugger off right now, or I really will Furnunculus you into next week. I'm never going to date your sorry ass, so stop asking."

Rose felt like she had overdone it just a bit this time, but she would do anything to keep Malfoy away from her. Every time he asked her out, Rose got even more annoyed at him. Couldn't he see she hated him?

Malfoy had slumped back to his seat next to Albus at the Slytherin table in the Great Hall. Rose couldn't hear him anymore, but she could tell that he was retell img the entire encounter to Albus, who was also wearing the expression of a sad puppy.

That was another thing she was annoyed at.

She had mostly gotten over her cousin and Malfoy being friends, but what annoyed her the most was that they were both head-over-heels in love for each other and nobody else, not even Albus and Malfoy themselves, could tell.

Well, _maybe_ Albus knew that he liked Malfoy, but Rose thought that was highly unlikely, seeing as he was as daft as a salmon when it came to feelings.

She could tell how much it crushed his heart every time Malfoy asked her out and he retold all of his experiences with her in detail the next time he saw Albus.

Rose really was pissed about how clueless the boys were.

* * *

Albus had learned to tune out Scorpius's recountings of his few experiences with Rose, who he was desperately trying to date. They all sounded about the same, with Scorpius's marching up to her and hopefully asking her out, and Rose plainly rejecting him again and again. Then he would trudge back to Albus and tell him all about it like he thought Albus hadn't heard it before. Something tiny and fragile inside of Albus seemed to shatter every single time.

Scorpius's obsession with Rose was the only thing Albus found annoying about his best mate.

So, Albus nodded his head and drowned at the correct times, and then he was always eager to change the subject to anything else, even if he was just promising Scorpius that he would pummel him again in chess that evening. Which he definitely would, by the way. Scorpius was absolutely useless at chess.

As Scorpius yammered on more about Rose, Albus found himself staring intently at his friend's mouth.

"Albus? Albus? Albus!"

Albus snapped back to attention, and he realized that Scorpius had most likely gone off script and asked him something. "Sorry, Scorp. What is it?"

Scorpius smiled at him and his heart melted and flooded the rest of Albus's body.

"I was saying, I think I might be over Rose." Albus perked up immediately. Scorpius was done with Rose Granger-Weasley? He almost missed the rest of what Scotpius was saying due to his shock.

"I guess she really does hate me. After all, I have been nagging her for a date for ages, haven't I?" Scorpius said, as if he was just coming to this revelation. Which he probably was, actually. Albus hadn't heard the specifics of what his annoyed cousin had said this specific time, but he had caught the words "Furnunculus me into next week" during when he was half listening to Scorpius.

"You just realized that, Scorp? Well, at least I won't have to listen to your retellings almost every day," Albus said, relief flooding through him to join his melted warm heart.

Albus glanced at the Gryffindor table to where Rose was sitting with her own friends, and saw her looking towards them with a relieved expression. He put the image away and decided to analyze it later.

When he looked back at Scorpius, his best mate had cracked a full-on grin for him, and Albus happily grinned back.

Maybe he didn't really have a chance at Scorpius in the near future, even if he had given up on Rose. Maybe he did.

But at least he still had their friendship, and that was enough for now.


End file.
